Almost killed myself in New Albany, IN Yesterday

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My brothers and I left Chicago on Thursday morning for a 4 day run on our bikes. We had planned on going to 4 midwest Sprinfields: OH, TN,MO and IL. All this rain has been wreaking havoc on our trip so we have changed our plans and haven't made it to a single Springfield yet. We started off almost making the Springfield in OH but ended up at a motel outside of Dayton for the night. We then started south on Friday and made it to Louisville. As there was more rain on the way and no relief in sight if we continued south, we switched and decided to head towards southern Ill. As we headed out of Louisville in a rain storm west on I-64, we crossed the bridge into IN. My 2 brothers were behind me. Just after we came off the bridge, there was some kind of steel rail imbedded in the pavement runing the same direction as the road. It looked like the same kind of rail that normally runs across either side of a bridge but this was different. It was about 30-40 feet long and in the right side of the lane. I didn't see it until it was too late. I felt my front tire lose traction and start to break away. I learned later that my rear tire also broke lose and started to swing to the side. Somehow by the grace of G*d, I kept the bike moving forward and stayed upright. It was several seconds of sheer terror. Somehow, I managed to remember to not hit the brakes. I prayed that my brothers saw what was happening and moved over before they ended up doing what I did. Thankfully I saw them avoid the steel rail and they were ok. I kept going but finally stopped atthe firstrest stop to recover. I asked them if they saw what happened. They said that they thought I was just showing off but saw me almost go sideways. It was while talking to them thatI learned thatmy rear tire started sliding off to the side. I told them what had happened and they couldn't believe it. We weren't going that fast, only about 45 mph but it was raining.

This taught me a very valuable lesson about riding in the rain. I had done it too many times in the past to count and thought I had seen everything. I am always extremely cautious in the rain. Now I have experienced something new and realize that you always have to be on guard and anything can happen. Would it be worthwhile to contact Indiana Department of Transportation to express my concern about this potential safety hazard?

We are still on our trip. We ended up in Mt. Vernon, IL on Friday night and went back overby Indianapolis (Lebanon, In) by back roads on Saturday where we are staying the night. We are going to finish up our trip taking back roads all the way back to Chicago on Sunday. We missed all the rain while driving today and hopefully we will have a nice dry finish tomorrow.